Void
by Oni-Gil
Summary: Sequel to "Prime." Running out of both energy and options, hounded by Autobots and Decepticons alike, Starscream has nowhere left to run. But someone else has his optics on the outcast Seeker.
1. Void

**Title: **Void

**Rating:** T, PG-13

**Universe:** Animated AU

**Summary:** Sequel to "Prime." Running out of both energy and options, hounded by Autobots and Decepticons alike, Starscream has nowhere left to run. But someone else has his optics on the outcast Seeker.

**A/N:** The first bit of this sprang from a bunny from the ever-reliable bunny farm. The rest just sort of... happened.

* * *

I struggled to gain any sort of advantage, but Megatron's weight was too great and the way he was positioned-- holding down my wings, making the joints on my back scream in agony every time I attempted to sit up-- kept me firmly on the cold metal floor. What he was doing wasn't painful in and of itself; any other time, the paint and brush would have felt wonderful on my wings, but the _meaning_ behind it rent my Spark in two. I wasn't a traitor to the cause... only to Megatron. I had always upheld the Decepticon vision, thirsted for it, striven towards it. We will cast off our chains and rise above Autobot tyranny. We will cleanse Cybertron of the filth that chokes her, by any means necessary. Surrender is not an option.

If anyone had lost sight of the cause, it was Megatron. _I_ remembered our purpose. By right, _I_ should lead the Decepticons. Only _I _could lead us to our glorious future. Why could no one else see it?

His work finished, Megatron hauled me up and practically threw me aside. I struggled to find my footing and came up against the viewport. The surface was reflective; I saw the black glyphs defacing my wings, blotting out my Decepticon insignias, and gave a choked sob.

_Void_.

"You are unworthy of the name of Decepticon," Megatron declared behind me, and the finality in his statement struck me harder than a blow. "You are below Neutral. I banish you, Void. If you are encountered by any Decepticon, you will be executed without mercy. You have two breems to leave this ship."

I didn't stop to ask questions.

* * *

I onlined to a spectacular array of flashing warnings. Most of my nonvitals were shut down to conserve energy-- I barely had enough to be online. I remembered losing consciousness sprawled on some tiny rock of a planet, having expended all my energy flying from Cybertronian space. But I wasn't there now... where _was _I?

I onlined my optics to see dark metal above me. More distressingly, I became aware of the stasis cuffs binding my wrists. I was captured, then. By Decepticons? No, then I wouldn't be bound, I'd be dead. The Autobots? Perhaps they hoped that, since Megatron had cast me out, I would spill my secrets. The thought alone disgusted me. I would never betray the cause... only Megatron.

If only I were that lucky. My captor soon revealed himself, and it was not anyone I had ever wanted to see from this position. Lockdown barely even looked Cybertronian any more, with all those modifications. His protoform was just barely hinted at under the weapons he had armed himself with. His optics glinted with malicious amusement as he watched me.

"Online at last," he said, his gravelly voice grating on my audios. "I took the liberty of refuelling you, just enough to wake up, hope you don't mind."

"What do you want?" I hissed, but he wasn't intimidated.

"What do I always want?" he responded coolly. "It's just a matter of who offers more. Now, in _your_ case, you've got a system-wide death sentence, at least for the Decepticons, but there aren't too many credits riding on it. But some. The Autobots want you alive... probably interested in what's in here." He reached through the bars and tapped my helm with his hook. I jerked away. "And they're offering more creds than the 'cons, for once. See, if I hand you over, I ge the credits but miss out on some sweet little mods."

I ran a hasty self-diagnostic. Lockdown noticed the dimming of my optics and laughed. "Wings, thrusters, null-rays, they're all still there," he assured me, and the results of my diagnostic confirmed the fact. "With a great personal struggle on my part," he added, hungrily caressing my cannons with his optics. I tucked in on myself protectively.

"So which is it?" I asked. I relished neither prospect-- death and dismemberment or imprisonment and likely torture.

"Hang on, there's a third option," he said, and I frowned to hide my surprise. "One that doesn't net me any credits at all. Not even any mods, unless you're feeling generous.

"See, you're already listed as offlined, according to the 'cons' database. And I haven't told anyone that I've got you. As long as I feel like muting it, you're gone. Disappeared. Offlined, as far as anyone knows or cares.

"Your point?" I growled.

"My point," he continued, "is that I'd sure like having a partner who doesn't exist. And even if _I_ can't have those nice little mods of yours, I can still use them... indirectly."

"Why would I ever want to work with you?" I demanded. A bounty hunter? _Me?_ The thought... the very idea of it! _Me,_ the Decepticon Air Commander... the former Decepticon Air Commander. Working for the highest bidder? Working with _Lockdown_?!

"Beats offlining," he said. "And I'll give you a hint, Starscream. I'm more interested in mods than in credits." He converted his hook to a wicked-looking energon saw and I cringed. "And you'll be awake for every nano-klik of it, let me tell you. I've heard that fliers make the best screams when you take off their wings. Care to test that?"

"N-No!" I gasped, and hated myself for my own cowardice. But my wings... I couldn't endure that. "St-State your terms."

"That's better," Lockdown said smugly, switching back to his hook. "Terms, hmm. We'll be partners. You get part of the earnings. You get energon, a recharge berth, and anonymity. I get _you_. Your skills. Your loyalty. 'Course, you'll need a little trial period, just to make sure you won't disappoint. But I have a feeling you won't."

He reached over unexpectedly and deactivated the bars, unsubspaced a cube of energon and set it on the deck a short distance from where I lay prone.

"It's up to you. Fuel up. Then you can either come to the command deck or leave. It's not hard to catch up with a mech running on one cube, even one as fast as you, and then we'll have a little fun before I give Megatron your Spark casing."

With a touch to the remote, the stasis cuffs went dead. Lockdown didn't even pause to look back as he left the brig. Cocky slagger knew that I could barely move. As the door hissed shut I sat up and glared at the innocent cube.

The life of a bounty hunter. It was hardly a respectable line of work, nor exactly prestigious. If I had the luxury of being picky, I would rather fly to the ends of the universe, exploring uncharted planets just like we used to, me and--

I must be getting sentimental because of low fuel if I were thinking of him. Besides, I couldn't afford hesitation. At least I would have energy.

No choice for it, really.

* * *

Lockdown was waiting on the bridge. He turned to smirk at me as I entered, somewhat refueled-- at least, my readouts glowed yellow instead of flashing urgently red.

"Good choice, partner," he said. "Come here." I hesitated, but he unsubspaced another cube of energon and I reached hungrily for it, approaching without caution. He watched with unreadable optics as I gulped it down, that half-smile still curving his mouthplates.

"Turn around," he said when I was finished. I glared, feeling much more confident now that I was near fully charged.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. Instead of answering, he whirled in a low kick and swept my legs out from under me. He flipped me onto my front and was on me in a lfash, prying the delicate cables at the back of my neck apart and linking something into the port hidden beneath. A jolt passed through my neural lines and my systems seized for a moment.

"What did you--?!"

"Stasis cuffs, wireless linkup and homing beacon all rolled into one," Lockdown responded cheekily, pushing the neck cables back into place over his device. "Not that I don't _trust_ you, or anything..."

"Of _course_ not."

"Just think of this as your 'trial period,'" Lockdown finished, letting me up. I rubbed at the back of my neck, still glaring.

"You do realize that I've still got the death sentence in Cybertronian space," I reminded him. He grinned.

"Ah, some paint and maybe a little reformat can take care of that. As far as anyone will ever know, Starscream doesn't exist any more. You got another name?"

Ironic. The universe was laughing at me. "N..." No. That name was lost to me forever... it had been lost when I lost him. "No. Not like I needed one before."

"Heh, fine. Luckily Megatron was considerate enough to leave you one." He nodded at my wings, or rather, at the glyphs marring them. "Void. And besides... death sentence or no, recognize you or not..." He raised his hand to tap the back of his own neck, optics glowing with satisfaction and a bit too much possessiveness for my tastes. "You're giving off my signal now, you're flying for me now. And any bounty hunter with half a processor knows better than to touch what's mine."

I sneered. "That's _ever_ so comforting."

He laughed. "That's the spirit. You know, Void, I think I'm gonna like working with you. Come on, I've got some paint lying around in the trophy room."

* * *

**A/N:** Well? :) Please review.


	2. Assignment

**A/N:** Right, I lied. This turned into a full story... partly because many reviewers wanted me to continue it! Anyway, continued it is, finished it will be. Be on the lookout for crossovers with other continuities. Rather gratuitous crossovers, but then again, how else am I to expand the cast without using OCs?

As for this continuity itself, it's a mangled up version of the Animated timeline, breaking off from the show after the end of Season 1. (So the little entanglement with the Elite Guard that is mentioned somewhere in here took place sometime in the past five stellar cycles and not on Earth.) None of Season 2 took place (nothing that had to do with Starscream, anyway).

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**2. Assignment  
**

**

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**

"Got something for you," Lockdown announced as he entered the bridge. I glared at him, as usual.

"What?" I growled.

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Come to the trophy room and find out."

"I know better," I said, and I did. Mechs who were unfortunate enough to find their way into Lockdown's trophy room never came out intact.

"Trust me, you'll love it. With these new thrusters you'll beat Mach 4, no problem."

"I _don't_ trust you," I pointed out, hiding my excitement as my Spark skipped a pulse. He knew just how to get to me. Ordinarily I wouldn't be bothered with mods I didn't make myself, but my partner had found out quickly that speed was almost an obsession of mine. With my reformat we had gotten rid of that lamentable altmode I had adopted for use during my brief stint on Earth and started from scratch, building up from my protoform. The result was sleek and aerodynamic, just the way I liked it, and although I would never be as large or imposing as some, I could be just as intimidating. To avoid recognition by my former comrades or enemies, I had to alter much of my facial structure as well as my vocal processors, but I was pleased with the result: a longer nose, a shorter chin, and a faintly orange tinge to my optics, and my voice didn't "grate on the audios like an air raid siren," as Lockdown charmingly put it. He had painted me mostly black, claiming it suited both my new name and my new profession. He insisted on repainting the glyphs on my wings, and when I protested that I could be recognized, he responded that only Megatron had seen the glyphs before I fell in with Lockdown and I likely wouldn't come face-to-face with the Decepticons' leader any time soon.

"We've been working together for five stellar cycles and you _still_ don't trust me?" Lockdown grinned, all innocence. "Come on… a gift from your partner?"

"What's the catch?" I asked suspiciously. Lockdown never gave anything without expecting something back. Indeed, his smile widened, baring all of his dental plating.

"Well, with all those sweet upgrades I've been giving you, I was thinking you might want to make me something…"

"Not a chance."

"Not one measly set of null-rays?"

"No."

"Oh, you cut me to the Spark," Lockdown said, putting his hand over his chest. I ignored him and returned to my perusal of the databanks, idly twirling my favorite toy and trophy, the stasis cuffs I had slipped to escape the Autobot Elite Guard. I liked to remind myself of that particular triumph. Through the data on the viewscreen I could see stars and the pale barren landscape of Earth's single moon. The ship was cloaked to avoid detection by either Autobots or Decepticons. We had returned to Earthspace a stellar cycle ago after working near Cybertron and in the Autobot-held territories long enough for those on Earth to have stopped wondering what had happened to me. I would have been content to stay across the universe from Megatron, but Lockdown was adamant—Megatron paid the best.

My partner snatched the stasis cuffs from me, earning an annoyed glare. He examined them closely, making a surprised sound. "In perfect condition… I thought they must have been defective. How _did_ you manage to get out of these?"

"I don't feel like telling you."

In one swift movement he clapped the cuffs onto my wrists, grinning madly at my outraged cry. "Then show me," he said smugly.

I huffed air through my vents and settled lower into the pilot's seat, a position I had commandeered after experiencing Lockdown's lamentable flying skills, or lack thereof. "Take them off." My hand twitched with the urge to throttle him and the cuffs sent a shock through my systems. Lockdown was still grinning when I recovered.

"Better hurry," he said, "otherwise I might get bored and take advantage of the situation."

I sneered at his long-stale innuendo and willed my arms to relax, simultaneously starting the painfully slow process of connecting to the stasis cuffs. Lockdown tapped his foot impatiently. "Nothing's happening."

"Patience," I growled, almost losing my concentration. "I'm working on it."

"Well?!"

"It's similar to a primitive, senseless human toy they call the 'Chinese finger-trap,'" I explained, still trying to connect as slowly as I could bear. If I slipped up now, I'd have to start the process all over. "The more you struggle, the harder it becomes to escape. Stasis cuffs only shock you if you strike the edges with a certain amount of force. How _you_ would get out, I don't know and for all I care you could _rot_ in these. _I_ connect to the cuffs and use energy from my null-rays to temporarily neutralize them…" With a click, the cuffs sprang open.

"Color me impressed," Lockdown said. "Now there's a useful talent."

"One among many."

"Ah, Void, modesty is not among them…" Lockdown chuckled. Then he draped himself into his seat and tilted his head towards me conspiratorially. "Anyway. We've got business."

I could tell. In spite of his mostly-relaxed position, I could read the excitement in Lockdown's face. "With…?"

"Megatron, who else?"

"The mark?"

"Here." He leaned forward and uploaded something to the console. After a moment, a file appeared onscreen. It resembled the standard profile for a Cybertronian bounty, but with one or two major differences.

"A human?" I asked skeptically. "Megatron wants us—you—to capture a _human_?" I looked closer with narrowed optics. "Not even Sumdac's daughter."

"Nope," he agreed. "This is Alexis Feller, real name Alexandra, who apparently knows something about spacebridges."

"How would a human… and a _young_ human, at that… know anything about spacebridges?" My partner and I had returned to Earth via the Elite Guard's new spacebridge, and it hadn't been easy. If not for my clearly superior piloting skills, we never would have gotten through. No wonder Megatron wanted a Decepticon-controlled spacebridge to Earth.

"Hey, don't ask me, I'm just telling you what he told me." Lockdown shrugged. "This girl is a friend of the Autobots, and I've heard there's been a couple of additions to their numbers. Still, she's not with the main force, so she can't be too heavily guarded. Between us we should have no problem. You know how humans are… show off some firepower and they're conveniently willing to take suggestions."

"It's an easy way to make some credits. I doubt you'll get any modifications from the human, though."

"Who knows? She knows about spacebridges, so what else might she know? So, here's the plan: we pop down to Earth, beat us up an Autobot, snatch the fleshie. You come back to the ship, I deliver the package. Easy deal all around."

It was easy. As simple as our jobs ever got. But there was one lesson my stellar cycles with Lockdown had taught me: a job that sounded too good to be true usually was.


	3. Hunt

**A/N:** Hello again! Sorry that these chapters are a bit short; they should get longer later when the plot thickens.

* * *

**3. Hunt**

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**

Earth hadn't changed much since we'd gone. It was still green and blue, still messy with dirt and rain, and still positively _crawling_ with organics. I hadn't expected much of a change; we'd only been absent for six Earth years. But it was long enough for the Autobots' human pet to grow into adolescence and just long enough that Lockdown and I were unsure which Cybertronians currently populated this miserable planet. In our caution we landed the still-cloaked ship on the outskirts of our target's home city, a small town even by Earth standards located in the sector called "Oregon." It was a mountainous, forested region which, while appealing to the optic sensors, was certain to provide endless opportunities for mud, rust, and foliage lodged between plating. I hoped that the human wouldn't have the sense to run into the trees—the undergrowth looked thick enough that we couldn't follow. Of course, we could always set the forest ablaze, but that filthy organic smoke was incredibly damaging to my delicate vents.

The human could hide, but she couldn't run. Lockdown was fast enough, for a groundpounder, and I was without a doubt the swiftest of our kind even out of my altmode.

Lockdown cruised the city in his altmode, being relatively less noticeable than I. It was an unfortunate thing about Earth—while the Autobots had chosen altmodes as common as turborabbits, the Decepticons' usually flight-capable forms called for altmodes that would be noticeable in a normal human environment. With this in mind, I circled high above the city, making a wide sweep of the region but remaining close enough to reach Lockdown quickly once he located the human.

I detected no Autobot signals from below, which struck me as odd. If this "Alexis" creature were important enough to warrant Megatron's attention, surely the Autobots would guard her. His apparent slack in security did nothing to ease my processor… if anything, it put up both on guard, sensors on high alert.

//_There are echoes of an energy signature,_// I commed to my partner. //_One has been here._//

//_One of the Autobots?//_

_//It doesn't match any of the Earth-bound 'bots that we know of,//_ I answered, scanning my databanks for a match, _//and none of the Decepticons, either.//_

_//Must be a new one.//_

Still, the energy signature seemed strangely familiar, though it didn't match anyone in my recent records. I had no time to wonder further, however, for presently Lockdown's signal snapped across my comm.

_//I've sighted the target, and there's an Autobot here too. They've been blocking their energy signatures. Finally caught on to Sumdac's signal dampers.//_

_//I'm on my way,// _I answered, coming about in a neat turn.

_//Make it snappy… I'm going for it.//_

I honed in on Lockdown's signal and picked up the two mechs before seeing them. I had wondered when I saw who had distracted him… my partner had an unhealthy obsession with the solitary ninja-bot. I growled angrily and dove lower, searching for the human. She could have run, but her human curiosity might have kept her in the area, watching the fierce battle between Lockdown and Prowl.

Sure enough, the human was huddled behind a building, engrossed with the sight. She hadn't expected that Lockdown wasn't working alone, and when I transformed and landed before her eyes, she shouted and tried to run.

"Foolish human!" I laughed, blocking her way in one short leap. "You think you can outrun _me_?"

It was then that I heard engines and detected the mysterious signal coming in from behind and above me… coming in _fast_. Impossible! The Autobots didn't have any fliers! There hadn't been flight-capable Autobots since the outbreak of the war!

The approaching threat was more pressing than the girl. I spun to face the incoming mech… and stared, systems stalling. I could have sworn my energon pump skipped. Sunlight flashed blindingly bright off of snow-white plating as the huge form bore down on me. My Spark gave a horrible lurch, feeling suddenly cold, cold as ice.

It… it couldn't be.

He slammed into me full force, sending both of us tumbling helms over thrusters across the ground. There was enough time for me to realize that this was a _bad_ situation to be in, definitely, because I was being crushed under a far greater body mass than mine, and this was not going to end well for me, if the alerts flashing across my vision were any indication. But all of this passed through my processor in a muddled flash, leaving only one stunned word stuttering through my vocal processors as I stared into optics as blue as Earth's sky.

"_Skyfire?_"

And then everything went black.

* * *

**A/N:** The plot thickens.


	4. Past: First Meeting

**A/N:** Don't be confused! From here on out, every other chapter is a flashback! (All the ones in italics are flashbacks.)

* * *

_**4. First Meeting**_

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**_

_He smiled and it threw me for a loop. For a moment I stared dumbly at him, marveling at how optics the same shade of blue as mine and as all the other Autobots' could appear so brilliant and new. Perhaps it was just because they were set against brilliant white plating and accented by red trim._

_"I'm Skyfire," he said, his voice low and smooth and serene. "Er… I was told to come here, they said someone could help me? I'm… you see, I'm here from the science commissioner and the mechs there told me that there was another—"_

_Comprehension dawned on me. "Right," I said, nodding, trying to act professional and probably failing. "Nova… er, my designation, it's Nova. You just transferred here from Altihex, didn't you?"_

_Relief that he had found the right mech made him smile again. I couldn't help but stare in fascination. Skyfire was almost twice my size, the tallest flier I'd ever seen, and as intimidating as it was it also drew me. He looked like a shuttle-type, slower and bulkier than my own Seeker model. It was standard procedure at the Academy to pair a larger shuttle with a smaller jet, and practical, too—one could carry supplies, samples, even other mechs in a pinch, while the other was for protection. I'd been waiting for a partner for some time now, impatient to get off-planet and maybe see some action. Truthfully, science was more a hobby than a passion of mine, and I would trade deep-space exploration for a battlefield any cycle, but it wasn't as though fighting was common. I had signed up with the Autobot Academy to get a taste of excitement, but this was peacetime, as it had been for astrocycles. Now all the adventure I was likely to get was flying off to parts unknown, distant corners of the cosmos where no Cybertronian had gone before. At least I had that, as a flier; groundpounders didn't even get that little bit of variety._

_I was anxious about being partnered with a mech whose primary function was exploration and discovery—it sounded like a boring prospect, trapped forever with a boring mech with boring thoughts and a boring job. Skyfire, therefore, came as a pleasant surprise. I learned that he, too, had trained at the Academy, as evidenced by the proud red sigil above his canopy, but had found science more to his tastes. Despite my misgivings, he proved a fascinating conversationalist, eager and interested, though far more sedate and patient than I ever had been and ever would be. He never seemed in a bad mood and endured all of mine without complaint, providing understanding optics and ready audios._

_What with his obliging personality and admittedly his handsome face, in hindsight it wasn't really so surprising that I took an immediate liking to him, and later an uncomfortably… personal interest in him. He was fantastically intelligent and though we were far apart in our thought patterns, I found that we complemented each other nicely. He saw things that I tended to overlook in my sometimes hasty leaps of logic, and I was able to provide insight into his various projects. Even now, as I puzzled over the latest strategy game set to me by one of my instructors, he leaned over my shoulder to point out a move that I had dismissed as worthless. I told him so and he frowned thoughtfully, shaking his head._

_"The game's objective is to win the majority of sectors and eventually dispose of the opponent, correct?"_

_"Yes."_

_"And there is no time limit, is there?"_

_"Yes," I growled, wondering whether he was going to reach his point any cycle soon or whether he was just going to keep hovering over me like this, so close I could feel the heat of his Spark against my wings. I shivered and hoped he didn't notice. "I… prefer to end it quickly. I have no patience for drawing things out."_

_"I've analyzed the automatic pattern of the computer," he said. "It plays conservatively and is really rather predictable… and it expects you to play the same way, as your instructors have taught you."_

_"What's wrong with that?"_

_Skyfire smiled patiently. "If there is one thing I have noticed about you, Nova, it is that you are completely unpredictable. Do not be blinded by tactics that have worked in the past. If you allow the computer to take this sector," he said, pointing with a large finger and brushing my wing with his arm in the process, "it will leave this entire area unguarded. If you then take sector B7, the computer will be confused, so set in its programming that it will try to take A2, having expected you to move from A2 to B2."_

_I studied the display with narrowed optics. "But how will that help me?"_

_Skyfire launched into a long explanation of moves that he predicted. It was a solid strategy, one I hadn't contemplated._

_"I don't have that kind of foresight," I marveled, shaking my head. "I wish I could be like you… I'm too impulsive, everyone says so."_

_"I like that about you," he said unexpectedly, and I swiveled in my chair to gape at him._

_"What?!"_

_He grinned shyly. "I think it's…"_

_"Annoying? Frustrating? A pain in the aft?"_

_"…endearing," he finished, taking me by surprise yet again. For a moment I just stared, dumbstruck._

_"No one's ever told me that before," I said at last._

_"I like it," he pressed on, despite a pink tinge around the edges of his optics, a sign of embarrassment. "The way you're always barreling into things. You're not afraid of anything… I'm not like that at all. I could never be that bold."_

_"I just don't think. You're the one who's always considering the consequences, measuring your actions… you don't get in nearly as much trouble."_

_"But I like it when you get in trouble," he said, then winced. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way…"_

_I couldn't help but laugh. "That's what happens when you rush into things. Don't be like me, Skyfire. You're perfect the way you…" Slag my stupid vocalizer! "That is, I…"_

_"I don't want you to change," Skyfire slogged on bravely. "Even though other people might want you to. I like you the way you are. So… don't ever change."_

_I stared at him, feeling my core temperature rise. "I… er… I've got some things to do, so… that is…" I put the game on stand-by and stood a bit too quickly, before I said or did anything even more foolish. After a moment's hesitation, I stammered, "G-Goodnight."_

_"Goodnight," Skyfire echoed hollowly as I departed posthaste._


	5. Skyfire

**A/N:** Okay, expect an update sooner than this one, haha. I want to finish this so I can knock off a WIP and spend more time and brainpower on some of my other stories (read: Rise)... :)

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I onlined slowly, wincing at the host of error reports that my diagnostics showed the moment I was awake enough to appreciate them. I heard voices and kept my optics offline, fine-tuning my audios to hear.

"…any idea who he is?" That was a young voice, female, human. It wasn't the girl Sari… Alexis, then. Aggravating to be so close and yet so far.

"He's got no ID chips." That was the Autobot Ratchet. "For a bounty hunter, it's not surprising. He's anonymous."

"What I want to know…" I knew that voice. Oh, I knew it… it hadn't reached my audios in stellar cycles, astrocycles even, but I would never forget Skyfire's voice. "…is how he knows my designation."

"Yeah, since you've been a botsicle for the last four million stellar cycles," the annoying yellow Autobot added.

"I'd like to speak with him," Skyfire answered. "Alone, if you will permit it."

"Well, don't let him out of the stasis cuffs until Prime says so. If he knows who you are, he could be dangerous. Besides, he's with Lockdown. I don't want him running around our base."

Skyfire agreed and a door hissed, presumably behind the rest of them. Footsteps drew near.

"You may as well online your optics," Skyfire said, to my surprise.

"How did you know I was awake?" I asked, hesitant to power up my optics. If I saw him… I wasn't sure what it would do to me.

But online I did, and see him I did. He looked just as he had when I knew him, from the blue optics to the wide white wings. An Autobot sigil— the older version, the one he had worn since the Academy— stared at me from his chestplate, just above his cockpit. But he was looking at me with curiosity, not recognition. He hadn't changed in four million stellar cycles, but I had. My optics, my voice, my very frame, all had been altered since last we met, since our first fateful visit to this planet…

"I heard your systems booting up," he answered, watching me closely. I'd forgotten how well his audios worked… it had been aggravating whenever I'd tried to sneak on him. I made no reply. After another moment, he reached forward. I tensed, but he just sat me upright, then sat down himself. Even from the floor, he was taller than I… I remembered how Skyfire hated to talk to someone who wasn't close to his optic level. "May I ask for your designation?"

I couldn't help it… he was just so ridiculously polite… I smiled, but I managed to turn it into more of a smirk. "You may."

He waited, then realized his slip and smiled sheepishly. "What's your designation?" That curious look was back… I wondered if I'd been too obvious.

My designation. What could I say? _"Oh, hullo, Skyfire, it's me, Nova. Don't you recognize me? Oh, sure, I've changed a bit. Terminated a few hundred Autobots. Blown up a few planets. Nothing much."_ No… no, it was best that he didn't know. He could be content here, with the Autobots, his fellows. He would _love_ this planet… the _life_. He loved organics… he would be… happy here. I couldn't ruin his life by coming back into it.

"Void," I answered. I noticed his optics scanning the glyphs on my wings.

"I see," he said. "How did you know who I am?"

"I have my connections."

"Your information is extraordinarily up-to-date," he answered. "I've only been reactivated for three solar cycles."

"Lockdown."

He frowned, but paused before saying anything more.

"You're…. a Seeker, aren't you?" he asked finally. I nodded, refraining from the "obviously" that wanted to escape my vocalizer. "Then you might… do you know a Seeker called Nova?"

I hid my tension under a glare. "You expect me to know every Seeker in existence?"

"N-no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you." He looked down. "I've been in stasis for such a long time that none of the bots here have heard of him. I don't even know if he survived…"

He sighed through his vents. I longed to hear more of his voice. "What happened?"

"We were partners," he said. He had that nostalgic look he sometimes got when talking about the past. "He was in the Elite Guard… he earned the rank of Prime just a few stellar cycles ago… that is, before I went into stasis. It all seems to me like it just happened… I don't know why he bothered with me, to be honest. He must have thought I was so slow, too boring for his tastes. But… we worked. I… liked him. And he stayed with me when he might have requested another partner.

"We were sent on a long-running exploration mission. It could have taken an astrocycles, but we worked so well together that we could handle it. But just a few stellar cycles out, we came across this planet. We were curious… we were sloppy. As we entered the atmosphere over the North Pole, a freak storm caught us and we were separated. I crashed in the ice and went into stasis lock for all of these stellar cycles until a human exploration team found me. You can imagine my surprise when they brought me to my fellow Autobots! They told me how much had changed in my absence.

"I don't know what happened to Nova… in all likelihood, the storm dragged him down also. My own armor barely protected me, and he… well, someone his size…" He shook his head sadly. "Nobody I've asked knows anything about him, not even the Elite Guard. It's as though he never existed." He looked at me. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bore you with my life story."

"No, not at all."

"You must understand that most mechs don't care about someone who lived before they were created. They're all so young… but to me, Nova was alive three solar cycles ago. Losing him is… difficult."

"Well, I'll keep my optics online," I said. "If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him."

He suddenly reached up to the side of his head, evidently receiving a communication. "Tell him I'm coming," he answered, standing up. I grabbed at a chance for freedom—I hated to take advantage of Skyfire's long stasis like this, but I shunted that feeling aside. I had to think of myself now.

"I'm not a Decepticon," I said. "I'm neutral. Under the Treaty of Altihex, you can't keep me here."

"I don't know that treaty, but the others don't seem fond of your friend Lockdown. All of them have warned me against releasing you." No luck… Skyfire was neither stupid nor naïve. "But… I'll talk to them."

He nodded a courteous farewell and was gone, leaving me alone in the brig. It wasn't much of one… no bars, no cameras or sensors of any sort, just a single room with a berth. Presumably the Earth Autobots didn't have the supplies for a proper brig. Well, if they thought that stasis cuffs and a door were enough to stop me, they were mistaken. I relaxed my arms, concentrating on shorting out the cuffs, but Skyfire kept intruding on my thoughts.

Skyfire… alive. In the last four million years, I'd closed my Spark to that hope. When the storm tore us apart, I'd barely escaped intact… like Skyfire, I'd thought that he'd surely been deactivated. I'd searched until my energy was too low to risk staying any longer; even then I fell into stasis lock on the way to Cybertron. When I crashed to the planet's surface I suffered much damage, including to my processor. Some of my memory files were corrupted, parts of my life erased from my archive.

And the Autobots, the Elite Guard, had they helped me? Had they cleaned my damaged memory files, sent a rescue mission to Earth immediately? No. No. They had accused me of murdering Skyfire… _Skyfire_, my partner, my dearest friend, my…

With a click, the cuffs fell off. I subspaced them as a trophy and stood, flexing my wrists. It was lucky that I now wore my null-rays concealed under my armor (one could never be too careful around Lockdown), for now I extended them and fired on the door, blasting it to slag. I ran up the hall, trusting in my instincts to lead me to the sky. Alarms clamored around me, but I paid them no mind… I was confident in my ability to get out of here before they caught up with me.

There… a room with a tree pushing through the ceiling. A gap large enough for my wings to get through.

I hesitated for a moment… Skyfire was back there. But that part of me was gone, long gone, left behind with my first name. As far as Skyfire would ever know, Nova Prime was dead.


	6. Past: Promotion

**A/N:** I'm sorry these are all so short! But this should tide you over for a little while.

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**6. Past: Promotion**

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**

_"Skyfire! Skyfire Skyfire Skyfire _**Skyfire**_!!!"_

_"Nnngh…?" the shuttle groaned, his optics powering up dimly as I burst into our shared quarters. "Nnnva?"_

_"Wake up!" I urged, jumping lightly onto his berth and knocking on his chestplate in my excitement. "Skyfire, come on, wake up!"_

_" 'M awake," he assured me unconvincingly._

_"I was promoted!" I told him, feeling as though my Spark just might burst out of its chamber with pride. "Skyfire, I'm a Prime!! Nova Prime!!!"_

That_ woke him up. He beamed at me, sending my Spark fluttering out of control. "Nova Prime," he repeated happily. "Just like you always wanted."_

_I just grinned at him, happy that he was happy that I was happy._

_"Ah… I'm going to sit up now," he said. After a moment I understood—perched on his torso as I was, I would fall off if he tried getting up—and began to scramble off, suddenly embarrassed. Instead, his large hands gently lifted me and moved me down to his legs before he sat up. My optics flushed pale as I realized that I was now just about sitting in his lap._

_As partners, we lived at close quarters with each other, but I'd tried to keep actual physical contact to a minimum. Though I would like nothing better than to touch and be touched by him, I didn't want to upset out comfortable friendship by making any unwanted advances. Surely Skyfire would prefer someone more like him, closer in size and temperament. This was just a phase I was going through. With any luck, another Seeker would catch my optics and Skyfire and I would keep our relationship at a safe, friendly level._

_But then one of Skyfire's hands tipped my face up and he smiled that beautiful, processor-blowing smile of his. "I'm proud of you," he said. I barely had time to process this before I realized just how closely we were positioned and how Skyfire's hands were slipping behind me and pulling me closer and how he was leaning down and Primus, I thought I must have blown a circuit when he touched our noses together and then carefully, gingerly pressed his mouthplates to mine._

_For a moment, the world froze. Skyfire. _Skyfire._ Close._ Touching. Me._ The shock of it sent my processor reeling. Skyfire, wonderful, patient, brilliant, beautiful Skyfire. Holding me. _Kissing_ me. _Me._ Me, wild, reckless, impatient Nova._

_He pulled back, his optics so pale they were almost white. "I'm sorry," he said hastily, misinterpreting my shock. "I didn't mean… I was caught up, I, er… I'm sorry that I upset you…"_

_"Upset me?!" I asked, voice mixed with static. "You didn't _upset_ me, moron… just surprised me, that's all."_

_He continued to make excuses, growing increasingly, adorably flustered, until finally I took pity on him and stretched up to shyly brush my mouthplates against his._

_"I'm not angry, or upset," I told him, my faceplates heating up. "It's… it's all right. I…" Here goes nothing. "I liked it. I like _you_. I've… ah… for a long time now, I've… well… I didn't think you would… I mean, I _really_ like you, Sky. Maybe even love you."_

_There. I'd said it, the forbidden word. I looked down at my hands._

_"I… Nova… me, too," he answered stumblingly. He drew me up again, a bit more confident this time, but still careful. He was always careful around me, conscious of his massive size and strength compared to my small frame. I was sure that Skyfire could feel my Spark leaping for joy inside my chest. He grinned at me, overcoming his awkwardness with incredible speed. "But now that you're a Prime, I'd think you'd want to find some real action instead of flying around in space with some boring explorer."_

_"Never," I told him, nuzzling happily at his faceplates. "I'll keep my boring explorer, thanks."_


	7. Capture

**7. Capture  
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**

Lockdown, to his credit, did not seem surprised to see me. He grinned as I walked nonchalantly onto the bridge. "Knew they couldn't keep you. How'd you…"

Before he could finish, I unsubspaced the latest addition to my growing collection of stasis cuffs.

"You're a clever one, Void. Those Autobots never learn. Did you bring me a treat?"

"Information," I replied, connecting to the main viewscreen and uploading the data I carried. I'd taken the liberty of a stop at Sumdac Tower, and by combining the data I'd collected there with my own, I'd pieced together a reasonable story. An outdated profile of Skyfire was the first to appear. "This is the Autobot protecting the juvenile human female. Designation: Skyfire."

"Primus, he's big."

If it were possible, I'd have rolled my optics. "He was once an explorer and scientist, specializing in xenobiology and spacebridge technology."

"Spacebridges? Then…"

"Conclusion: Skyfire is the one Megatron wants," I confirmed. "Not Alexis. She was his bargaining chip."

"Well, why didn't he say so in the first place?" Lockdown demanded in exasperation. I shrugged.

"Don't ask me to comprehend Megatron," I said. My partner peered closer at the profile.

"Wait a klik. This is older than _I_ am. Wasn't there anything from _this_ astrocycle?"

"There's a good reason. Look closer," I said, pointing to the relevant information. "Skyfire went missing while exploring an organic planet— Earth, as it happens— close to a centicycle before the outbreak of the War. He was never recovered, until three solar cycles ago." I pulled up a new file. "Records from Sumdac Systems. Sumdac sent an exploration team to the North Pole. Instead of energy, they found Skyfire." I pointed out a pair of names. "Alexis's creators headed the team and brought her along. Evidently she befriended him, then the rest of the Autobots."

Lockdown made an impressed sound. "Okay. I'm gonna contact Megatron and see what he'll pay for Skyfire instead of the human. Hey," he added, peering at me. "You okay? You look funny."

"I'm fine." I left the information on the screen and about-faced, heading for my quarters. "I'm going to have a cube and get some recharge."

"We'll need a plan," he called. "He's bigger than you and me put together. We could get a Pit of a fight."

"He won't fight," I snapped. "He's an Autobot. I'll think of something. Contact Megatron and _don't bother me._"

I'd probably said too much, I thought angrily as I stalked to my quarters. Lockdown had noticed my strange behavior. If I was lucky, he would attribute it to my capture; if I wasn't, he would demand answers.

I frowned in the security of my quarters, sipping a cube of energon. Skyfire was alive. Not only was Skyfire alive, but he was _here_, right here on Earth, and it was tearing me apart. My bond to him was dormant, as it had been for astrocycles, but the longer he was out of stasis the more it gnawed at my Spark. It was driving me slowly insane… or at least, more so than I already was.

But it was only temporary. I was no longer Nova Prime, Skyfire's bondmate. I was Void, Lockdown's partner, bounty hunter, and my directive was to capture Skyfire and deliver him to Megatron. And I would do it, and do it gladly, and then maybe I could convince Lockdown to take me to the outskirts of the galaxy and we could work there.

Yes. That was it… I was a bounty hunter. A professional. Honor-bound to complete my mission, with no second thoughts as I collected my reward and turned away to the next job. I would use my intimate knowledge of Skyfire to my advantage and then I would forget about him.

With this resolve I finished the cube and settled down for some recharge.

It was almost a megacycle before I achieved standby.

* * *

My plan was simple and the likelihood of success was high. I still knew Skyfire's comlink frequency; it would be the work of a moment to lure him to some secluded area where Lockdown and I could capture him. I told Lockdown as much, and he didn't ask questions as to _how_ I would get Skyfire away from his fellows. This saved me some awkward answers.

I tried the frequency and was rewarded a moment later by Skyfire's answering signal.

_//Skyfire, this is Void.//_

It took a moment, but he answered, signal uncertain and untrusting. _//Void? How did you get my frequency?//_

_//I have contacts. Skyfire… I have information for you, something you might find interesting. I know where your friend Nova is.//_

The response was immediate and powerful. _//Where?//_

I pretended to hesitate. _//Wait. This signal could be intercepted by the Decepticons. Do you think you could meet me somewhere… alone?//_

_//Why alone?//_ He sounded suspicious. He had every right to be, after I'd given him the slip.

_//Your Autobot friends would rather attack than listen, I'm afraid.//_

_//…all right. Where will I find you?//_

I gave Lockdown a nod and he grinned. _//There's a small island in Lake Erie with a crater in the middle. I'll be on the shore opposite the mainland in a megacycle.//_ In truth, we were already there. We couldn't risk landing Lockdown's ship when Skyfire could see us.

_//I won't be late.//_

I closed the line and turned to Lockdown, who hadn't heard any of the conversation. "He'll come. You're ready to handle someone his size?"

"Hey, stasis cuffs fit everyone. Is he a dope or what? This has gotta be the easiest bounty I've ever collected."

* * *

I waited on the shore… on the rocks, actually, since sand did horrible things to my thrusters. I tried not to think about what I had just done or what I was about to do. Skyfire was no longer a part of my life. After this solar cycle, I would never see him again.

My resolve nearly crumbled when I saw him approach, but I shut out the cries of my Spark and focused on the mission. Skyfire transformed and landed on the beach, smiling in a fond, distant way.

"Sorry," he said, as though he thought his expression would offend me. "But Nova never stood on sand either if he could help it, something about his thrusters." He gestured at my ridiculous perch. "You reminded me of him for a moment."

He'd always laughed at me for my obsessive care of my turbines, whenever we had to travel in sand or snow or rough terrain. Sometimes he'd carried me, and I had curled up against his chest, feeling the warmth of his Spark on my cheek as my head rested on it…

I snapped out of my memories after just a klik too long.

"You said you have information for me?" he prompted, and the hope in his optics was almost too much for me.

"Yes," I answered. "I have to admit, I was curious… it was an entertaining hunt. The trail was cold…" Where the slag was Lockdown? "…and I don't normally work for no pay, but I have a gift for finding people." He watched me expectantly. I cast about to stall further. "Actually, it was easier than I thought."

"Truly? I will pay anything you ask for your troubles. Where is he?" Skyfire asked, excited. Did Lockdown enjoy watching me flounder?! There was only so long I could draw this out!

"He's here on Earth," I said truthfully, and I watched the surprise come onto his face. And there was Lockdown, _finally_, creeping up behind. Our signal dampeners rendered him effectively invisible to Skyfire's sensors.

_Skyfire… I'm sorry._

Lockdown brought all of his bulk to bear in the first blow, taking Skyfire by surprise and getting him off balance. I raised an arm and fired, letting my null-ray do the hard work. Skyfire toppled with an earthshaking crash; Lockdown sealed the deal with a pair of stasis cuffs. It was a routine that never failed: my null-rays incapacitated them and stasis cuffs finished the job.

But now I felt none of the satisfaction I usually took from a hunt's successful conclusion. I was silent as I helped a crowing Lockdown drag and heave Skyfire onto the ship. Lockdown didn't mention my unusual behavior, for which I was grateful. I could almost feel the curiosity gnawing at him, however, and I knew it wasn't to last.

"I'm going to recharge," I told him as soon as we'd managed to get Skyfire to the brig, turning abruptly around. "Don't bother me for a few megacycles."

"What's eating you?"

"I'm tired," I growled, and left him behind.


	8. Past: Bonding

**8. Past: Bonding**

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**

_Skyfire's large hands, usually so steady when he was working on an experiment or examining some tiny alien creature, were shaking. It was small, almost unnoticeable, but I noticed because those hands were currently holding me._

_"Are you… sure about this?" he asked. It was the same question he asked before I did something particularly daring or reckless or stupid, but this time he wasn't asking out of disapproval. I leaned up to nuzzle his faceplates._

_"I'm sure," I answered, and to my surprise I found that my voice was shaking just like his hands were._

_"You won't… regret, later?"_

_"I could never regret this, Sky." I hesitated. What if this… thing we had, this beautiful, amazing 'thing,' was only temporary? What if we were wrong, what if we weren't compatible enough to last? "Are _you_ sure?"_

_"Nova…"_

_"You deserve the best, Sky, and I'm not… I'm not the best mech there is."_

_"This coming from you?"_

_I managed a half-Sparked smile. "I'm being serious. Are you sure you don't want someone… better? Someone nicer or more patient or more serious? Maybe we're not meant to be together… _together _together… forever. Maybe we're lying to ourselves. Maybe it's not love. Maybe…"_

_He kissed me gently to halt my tangential rambling. His hands, steadier now, slipped up to my face._

_"I don't know the chemical formula for it," he said. "I don't know its state of matter. I can't recite the coding that makes it happen. I like to be able to pin things down, that's why I'm a scientist. I trust my processor more than my Spark, usually. But I know that this is love, Nova. I know it. Even if it's not permanent, we can make whatever time we have 'forever.' And one more thing." He kissed me again, slower, lingering. "I don't love someone patient or serious or nice. I love _you_. There's no 'better' mech. There's no one I'd rather spend forever with, however long that forever turns out to be."_

_My Spark warmed in its casing and for once in my life, I found myself speechless. There was nothing I could say to that. No words could express the emotions swelling in my Spark._

_No words were needed._

_I laid my hands on the warm metal of Skyfire's chest, just above his cockpit. His arms surrounded me, holding me close in a protective embrace, and the plating beneath my hands split without hesitation, sliding apart to bare his transparent Spark casing. His Spark was gold, like a miniature sun. A little sigh of wonder escaped me— no scientist could fully uncover all of the Spark's mysteries. It was the only part of the Cybertronian body that we didn't fully understand; the mystery intrigued me, excited me. I unlocked my own chestplates, feeling my Spark fluctuating, pulling closer to his._

_Skyfire was the first to open his casing, his Spark already reaching out little tendrils of light towards me. In any other situation, with any other mech, I'd have shied away from such a display of trust, such an intimate action, but this was _Skyfire_, and this was what we were going to do. I opened my casing without delay. Skyfire's optics glowed softly… they were the same color as my Spark, I realized._

_"I love you," he whispered. "Nova… bond with me."_

_I nodded, not trusting my vocalizer to speak. His large hands were warm on my wings as he carefully pulled me closer. I moved the rest of the way on my own, bringing our Sparks into contact. For a moment they brushed, and then, in one dizzying rush, they merged joyfully._

_It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Everything that made up who I was was laid bare for Skyfire to see, my very life force open to him, mingling with his. Skyfire was similarly accommodating, and I could feel the essence of him surrounding me, the core principles that made up that being known as Skyfire, and it felt wonderful. He hugged me close as we basked in our combined warmth, our Sparks exchanging information that couldn't be translated for our processors to comprehend, and I knew that even when Skyfire and I separated, part of each Spark would dwell within the other._

_"I love you," I finally managed to gasp out. He didn't need to speak; his Spark pulsed his feelings like an open-channel broadcast._

_Huge white arms kept the world at bay; I allowed myself to drown in Skyfire._


	9. Choice

**A/N:** Next chapter will be longer, I promise!

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**9. Choice**

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Even after Lockdown had delivered Skyfire to Megatron, the bond still nagged at me. It just wasn't _fair_; I no longer wanted the shuttle in my Spark, interfering with my emotions. Why couldn't he simply be gone? Why was this so _difficult_?!

"We made out," Lockdown crowed, looking through the accounts. "Megatron paid even more for Skyfire than he would have for the human. And it was a cube of high-grade!" He looked expectantly at me, obviously hoping for some sort of reaction. I managed a smirk, but he saw through it.

"So," he said. His tone put me immediately on guard… it was the tone of Lockdown with an unanswered question. "Who is that bot, really?"

"Skyfire, scientist, Autobot. All things you already knew."

He smiled insidiously. "Riiiight. You've been acting way too weird for that. So what's that shuttle to you, hmm?"

I shifted, uncomfortable. "I knew him, once. On Cybertron. He was… a colleague. Nothing more."

"Uh-_huh_." He sat back and surveyed me. His optics missed nothing. "You know, Void, you're not the first partner I've had."

"Is that a threat?"

"Nope. Just a tip. I know the signs. I know how to read mechs… wouldn't last a cycle in the business if I didn't. So if this mech was just an old colleague of yours, why've you suddenly got a guilty conscience?"

"I'm not guilty!" I snarled. "I'm a professional bounty hunter, just like you. And I was a Decepticon, remember? I have no conscience! Whoever Skyfire used to be to me, now he's just a mark. I don't feel anything but satisfied that we earned some credits. Understand?"

Lockdown didn't flinch. A maddeningly knowing smirk crept onto his face. "I know the signs," he repeated. "First they get guilty… then I lose me a partner."

"I'm not going to give it all up for him," I asserted emphatically. "Why would I?"

He shrugged. "All right, then."

Why would I? This ship was my sanctuary, this occupation was safety. Anonymity. Energon. A stable existence. Whatever had happened once upon a time between Skyfire and me was done, finished. He was gone from my life. I would no longer think about my bondm— about Skyfire in Megatron's clutches, locked away in a cramped cell, tortured, screaming… no! He was gone! Gone, and I had ensured it as well as if I'd terminated him myself…

Unbidden, the memory of warmth arose in my Spark and just for a moment I remembered the joy that Skyfire had brought into my life.

To Nova's life. That time was long past.

And yet. And yet my Spark still yearned to feel such happiness again. Skyfire was the only one who had ever made me feel that way. My time with him, as tragically short as it was, had been the best of my entire existence.

And I wanted to give all of that up for this cold routine of hunt, destroy, earn credits, refuel, recharge, repeat?

I didn't have to go back to him… this life, as harsh and cruel as it was, suited me. But I couldn't leave him to die.

I made my choice.

"Lockdown," I said, and he glanced up without concern. "Have I ever asked you for anything?"

After a moment's consideration, he shook his head. "Not really, no."

"Well, I need something now. Something you might not like." He just looked at me, suspicion beginning to form in his expression. I cycled an intake before going on, tearing down all of the barriers that I had so carefully constructed around my past, laying my Spark bare.

"I'm going to rescue Skyfire."

Lockdown's reaction wasn't immediate. His optics shutters flickered once. Then comprehension dawned. "All that work we went through and now you want to kidnap him right back?"

I nodded. "I'm going to try it with or without your help, but I'd think after all this time that you could do this for me."

"Primus, Void…" He leaned back, passing an exasperated hand over his optics. Then he sat forward again. "Why?"

This was it. Time to reveal myself as the truly twisted mech I was. "Because he was my friend…" I could leave it at that. Lockdown didn't need to know. "Before I was Void… before I was Starscream. When I was in the Autobot Elite Guard."

_That_ made him stare. "_You?!_ _You_ were an _Autobot?!_ Of all the mechs, I'd never have guessed… Primus, you're more screwed up than anyone thought!"

"Yes, me. I know. Will you help me?"

"What's in it for me?" Typical Lockdown.

"You can't just call it a favor?"

"I'm a professional bounty hunter," he answered, smirking."I never do anything unless it's for a profit. Especially if my partner's gonna run out on me for some huge spacefaring goody-two-shoes and leave me all alone."

"I don't plan on running off with anyone," I answered, beating down the tendril of longing in my Spark. "I'm not even going to tell him who I am. He doesn't need to know _why_ I'm doing it. I just can't leave him there."

Primus knew I couldn't. I was familiar enough with Megatron's tender mercies to inflict them on my bondmate… and this line of thought led to a sudden realization: My past was tangling with itself – my first life crashing into my second, Nova's bondmate suffering under Starscream's hated lord and master, and it seemed that my third life was set on a collision course for both. It was inevitable… I hadn't left it all behind as cleanly as I'd thought. There was only one life – there was no Void, there was no Starscream, there was not even a Nova; all of those mechs were one and the same. There was just… me, whoever that was.

Lockdown cycled a long intake.

"Fine," he said at last, "but only because I want to watch the show. When the slag hits the turbine I'm out, and if I have to drag you by the wings I'm taking you with me, you register? You owe me big for this. One condition: you've gotta tell me your designation. Your real one."

Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I could feel such affection for a creature like Lockdown. "It's Nova," I said. "But it's been so long that I wouldn't answer if you called."

"All righty, then, Nova, or Starscream, or Void, or whatever… what's the plan?"


	10. Past: Losing

**A/N: **Woah, long flashback chapter!

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_**10. Past: Losing**_

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_Skyfire and I loved space. It was our home, our sanctuary from the pressures and annoyances of Cybertron. We loved to fly through the endless abyss, our only company stars, planets, comets, and each other. Other times, we simply floated, letting our inertia carry us as we rested our engines. Other mechs may have found our existence boring, including myself, once upon a time. But being with Skyfire made everything better._

_It was easier to talk out here, with so much room to ourselves. That, together with our new bond, made us more like one being than two – I knew his thoughts as well as he knew mine. There were other effects of our bonding, also. I calmed considerably and gained a tendency to think things through first, though I still retained my spontaneity. Skyfire was noticeably more playful than he had been before, although he remained as steady as always. He tended to join in on my dangerous games, the ones where I would dive headlong into a comet trail or an asteroid belt to test my agility. Obviously he wasn't as good at it as I was, simply because he wasn't built to dodge and weave, but fortunately we both became accomplished field medics._

//There,// _he said, subspacing the repair kit._ //How does it feel?//

_I flexed my wing, glancing at the patch-job._ //Better now. Are you sure there's nothing more you can do?//

//Certain. Your self-repair can take care of the rest. Besides, that's what you get for playing in asteroid fields,// _Skyfire chided._ //It was reckless.//

//You wouldn't like me any other way,// _I purred, kissing him on the cheek and firing up my thrusters, accelerating away as I laughed. He followed, keeping up (but only because I allowed it – I was much faster than he was, even in bipedal mode)._ //I've got some planets coming up on my scanners. This system has several, it seems.//

//I don't get any life-readings,// _he added as we approached the first planet past the asteroid belt._

//Nor anything else,// _I agreed._ //It doesn't look like this planet has anything to offer us.// _I increased my speed, grinning playfully back at him._ //Race you to the next planet. Catch me if you can, Sky!//

* * *

_The third planet from the sun was an organic world, like many of the others we'd found during our travels. Our scans revealed little life; clearly this world was early in its evolution. Since Cybertronian lifespans lasted for as long as we kept ourselves energized and in good condition, we had the ability to observe the growth and fall of alien civilizations, even entire species, but it was rare that we found organic life so early in its development._

//I'm getting high energy readings, but there's so much atmospheric interference that I can't be sure,// _Skyfire said._ //I wouldn't mind taking a closer look. You?//

//What are we waiting for?// _I answered._ //Last one down's a rusted bearing!//

//Nova, wait just a klik—//

_I'd already transformed into my alt-mode and begun my entry. Skyfire followed doggedly. Our temperature-regulation systems were built to withstand the sudden change from the all-penetrating cold of space and the blazing heat of atmospheric entry, in addition to temperature extremes on any of the planets that we visited._

_This particular planet seemed to be of the cold extreme. We arrived over a vast stretch of white – one of the polar ice caps that we'd seen from orbit._

//Rusted bearing,// _I teased as Skyfire came up beside me._

//I prefer not to dive right in,// _he said._ //It's dangerous to make entry without at least analyzing atmospheric patterns… you know that.//

//Yes, well, nothing bad happened, did it?//

_He laughed over the comm._ //_This_ time. Just don't do it again, Nova.//

//How are the energy readings?//

//Off the scale! This planet could mean an end to the energon shortages if we can find a way to convert the natural energy to something we can use. Besides, a planet like this would be a golden opportunity to study organic life.//

//Looks boring to me. All this snow and ice… hey, what's that?//

//It looks like a storm! Put up your deflector sh—"

_The world twisted into a blurry swirl. I lost track of gravity; I didn't know up from down. I couldn't get my bearings, I couldn't stabilize myself. I caught a final staticky transmission, so weak that I couldn't tell where it came from-- _//Nova!//_-- before something clipped my wing and sent me careening out of control._

_The shrieking wind was merciless. I had no way of knowing how far it dragged me and it was only thanks to sheer luck and that last strike on my wing that saved me from slamming into the planet's surface._

_At last it released me and I tumbled for a Spark-wrenching moment before finally stabilizing. I still saw nothing but white. I activated my long-range sensors, scanning for a Cybertronian signal, standard procedure in case of a separation. Skyfire would do the same, wherever he was, and we would use the signals to track each other until we met in the middle. Then we would laugh the incident off and carry on as if nothing had happened, maybe after a cube of energon – my reserves were already low from my fruitless struggle against the wind, and Skyfire carried our backup supply.._

_Except that my scanners came up with nothing._

_Perhaps my sensors had malfunctioned, I reasoned, running a diagnostic and trying again. Still nothing, and my sensors were in perfect condition._

_Then it was Skyfire's side that was malfunctioning. He must have sustained damage, but it was only a subsystem, so he was all right. Instead I activated my comm._

//Skyfire? Can you hear me? Skyfire?// _What was taking him so slagging long? _//Come on, it's not funny. Skyfire, respond!//

_This was making me uneasy. I ran a diagnostic on my comm and found nothing amiss. _//Skyfire, you big moron, answer! Skyfire? Please, Skyfire…? Can you hear me? Are you there?//

_I tested our connection and received an unsympathetic response. _Signal lost. _There was nothing on the other end of our link. I rechecked and came again to the same conclusion._

_No. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not ever. We… we'd only just bonded. Skyfire was just playing a prank. A cruel, un-funny, completely un-Skyfire-like prank. Because there was just no way… Skyfire couldn't have… he couldn't be…_

_There was only one way to be sure. I retreated inside myself, into my Spark, and reached out through our bond._

_All at once I was assailed by numbing cold. My armor shook in violent spasms and my systems seized. My optics frosted over; my thrusters stuttered, threatening to drop me to the planet's surface. My processor grew sluggish, but somewhere I understood that I had to let go or perish._

_I jerked out of the bond, defrosters working at full capacity on my optics. Even with the blessed heat that my temperature-regulation system was pumping into my circuitry, my Spark felt icy cold._

No.

_I would find him, and then I'd scream my vocals into static at him for frightening me, and then I'd fling myself at him and he'd kiss me senseless and we'd lose ourselves in the heat of Sparkmerge, because Skyfire wasn't offline. Skyfire _couldn't _be offline._

_Except that I couldn't deny the evidence forever._

_I flew, vocals turned to their highest volume, scanners tuned to their best, sensors on high alert._

_"Skyfire! Answer me, slag you! It's Nova! Skyfire! _Skyfire!_"_

_No answer._

_

* * *

  
_

_Half the planet I searched, my energy levels dropping lower and lower. I found no sign of Skyfire, heard not even the slightest signal._

_I wanted to stay and search until I fell into stasis lock, if need be, but the more logical part of me – the part Skyfire had given me – convinced me to call off this fruitless scouring of the planet. If I went into stasis lock, then who would return to Cybertron to tell them of the accident? Who would convince them to send out a search party, one far more competent than I to find my missing partner?_

_I would return to this planet, I swore as I blasted out of the atmosphere. I had to. I had to find him. I would return, even if it took me five million stellar cycles…_

_

* * *

  
_

_I never figured out how I made it back to Cybertron. I spent most of the journey in stasis to conserve my dwindling energon levels, awakening every so often to adjust my course. I tried to stay awake only for short periods – any longer and I would remember._

_I didn't even remember the crash that left me offlined for solar cycles. My next clear memory was of medics and Elite Guard investigators poking about in my processor, trying to discover what had happened. They told me that parts of my memory were missing entirely, probably lost in my crash to Cybertron's surface. I told them what I knew: Skyfire had presumably crashed in the ice and hadn't responded to my signal. The circumstances leading up to the accident were fuzzy; the investigators exchanged glances, and I knew I wasn't going to like what they told me._

_The entire mission was now under investigation, they told me. The gaps in my memory, they said, were suspicious. They suggested that Skyfire was too experienced an explorer to crash on entry to a new planet._

_They didn't accuse me out loud just then, but I could hear it in their voices, see it in their optics._

_They thought I'd murdered Skyfire._

_

* * *

  
_

_There had to be a mistake, I thought as they read out the sentence. Life in the Stockade? This wasn't really happening. This couldn't be happening._

_Sniper turned to me when everyone began to disperse. "I'm sorry, Nova," the lawmech said. Not Prime. Not anymore. "I'll do what I can."_

_"Ask them to send a search party," I begged. "I don't care what happens to me. They have to look for Skyfire."_

_"I'll keep trying, Nova. I promise."_

_

* * *

  
_

_The forcefield crackled with energy, the only sound once the clang of my plating striking the floor faded. I still couldn't quite comprehend what was happening to me… the blow hadn't really sunk in yet. I worked to sit up, a difficult task with the cuffs keeping my wrists together before me._

_A pair of clawed hands assisted me and I jerked in shock, whipping my head about to see a dark-plated mech with a single red optic. A crude, unfamiliar symbol was scratched into his chest armor._

_"Don't move," he said in a hoarse, cultured voice… and then he slammed me into the forcefield. My shriek was muffled substantially by the vocal inhibitor. I spasmed as the electricity surged through my systems. My unknown cellmate pulled me back just as brusquely and brought his claws slashing down through the now-dead stasis cuffs, splitting them open. I shuddered on the floor so another half-cycle before scrambling away from the stranger._

_"It was the only way to remove the stasis cuffs," he told me. "If you'll come back, I will remove the mask as well."_

_I shook my head vigorously, already struggling at the latches. He had no face with which to form any expression, but I got the impression of disapproval._

_"My designation is Shockwave," he said. "And you are Nova Prime… or, rather, just Nova."_

_It was much harder to deal with the inhibitor when it was on _me_, but I knew all the tricks, and a moment later it clanged to the floor. "How do you know my designation?"_

_"We've been keeping an optic on you. Did you know that you were the last flier in the Elite Guard?"_

_I stilled, staring at him in disbelief. "I didn't." There had been many fliers when I'd left on that fateful mission… what had happened to them all?_

_My cellmate guessed my thoughts. "They were drummed out on any excuse."_

_I shook my head. Surely he was lying… the Elite Guard recognized the value of fliers. Why would they throw us out?_

_"Why are you here, then?"_

_I hesitated. "I shouldn't be. I'm innocent."_

_"Yes, I know. So do the officers. The average Autobot, however, believes that you are a murderer. You never did anything wrong, nothing that they could exaggerate. And your friend, Skydive—"_

_"Skyfire." Pain in my Spark._

_"Yes, Skyfire… he wouldn't have let them do anything to you. That is why you were both sent on that mission._

_"You weren't supposed to return… neither of you."_

_"That isn't true," I snapped. It couldn't be true. I knew his type: paranoid, full of conspiracy theories. He acted logical, but his processor was probably a mess. "Why would they do something like that? It goes against everything that the Elite Guard stands for!"_

_"Fear," Shockwave answered evenly. "Envy. They are afraid of what the fliers could do to them if they joined together, jealous of those who have abilities beyond their own."_

_"You're wrong," I growled._

_"Search your feelings. You know that I am telling the truth. When were you treated the same as the groundlings?"_

_A guard struck his weapon against the bars as he passed by. "Quiet in there!"_

_"Why don't you come inside and put back my inhibitor?"_

_The guard hesitated, optics widening, then hurried on. I wondered what Shockwave had done to end up in here._

_"As I was saying," the other mech continued._

_"I'm not listening," I interrupted, moving to the unoccupied berth and determinedly throwing myself down onto it._

_"You will," Shockwave answered softly. "When the loneliness reaches you… the boredom… the claustrophobia… you will listen."_

_

* * *

  
_

_I stopped checking my chronometer eventually, for time crept by too slowly to measure without driving myself insane. My world shrank to an eternal cycle of recharge, energon, boredom, recharge, repeat. I memorized my cell before long, mapping out each seam, the marks on the walls left by past occupants, a horrible energon stain on the floor. The symbol on Shockwave's chest had been carved into the wall by another mech._

_All through my observations, Shockwave continued to talk._

_Next I memorized the guards' shifts, the timing of their patrols. It was all too easy and didn't keep me occupied for long._

_And Shockwave kept talking._

_When my surroundings failed to interest me, I turned inward, finding the residual combat-simulations and playing through them all. Each time I tried a different strategy; gradually I found which strategies worked best on each situation. I would probably have been the Elite Guard's top strategist… had I still been one of them._

_There was only so long that that could hold my attention. When I had nothing to distract me, I heard Shockwave. Though the words changed, the idea was always the same: Autobots feared fliers; the Elite Guard were hypocrites; energon shortages threatened all of Cybertron, and the Autobot Council refused to act on them; peaceful demonstrations had been brutally stamped down by security forces. His words reached my processor and tendrils of doubt wormed into my Spark._

_But the Autobots stood for justice! They couldn't… wouldn't do this intentionally. They would investigate. Things would be set right._

_

* * *

  
_

_I didn't know how long it was until I heard a familiar voice in the corridor and sprang to my landing struts. Sniper was passing in the company of a guard, chatting animatedly about something._

_"Sniper!" I called, stopping him. He backtracked to my cell. "Sniper, it's me, Nova!"_

_He stared at me blankly for a cycle before recognizing me. "Ah, Nova, of course. How are you?"_

_Ignoring the stupidity of the question, I asked, "Have they sent the search party yet?"_

_He shifted. "Ah… right. There's been… ah… some holdups. Just procedure. I'll keep trying, Nova. I promise."_

_"I see," I said blankly. That's what he'd said before. Skyfire was out there somewhere, marooned on some Allspark-forsaken dirtball across the galaxy, and they weren't even looking for him._

_"They don't want to find him," Shockwave said quietly from behind me. "That would prove you innocent."_

_

* * *

  
_

_In the beginning I held onto some faith in justice and hope that my innocence would be trusted, but I gradually came to realize that this was foolishness. Shockwave was right – no Autobot would go out of his way to ensure justice for a flier. What hope I might have had was stifled under the shock of Skyfire's death. I couldn't endure the numbing chill when I tried to connect with his Spark. Eventually, I learned to ignore the ache._

_In searching for distraction, I listened to Shockwave and his almost-ranting on the corruption of the Autobots and the growing sentiment of groundling superiority. First I listened… and then I believed. I grew to hate the Autobots. I did my best to forget that I was ever one of them._

_My wings tingled as Shockwave left the lines of the crude symbol of the rebellion in the wake his razor-sharp claws._

_

* * *

  
_

_The Stockades shook, the guards ran, and then there was silence._

_"He's come," Shockwave said, breaking it._

_Heavy steps announced the approach of a large mech. I joined Shockwave at the forcefield and looked up into the red optics of the mech who would shape my destiny._


	11. Rescue

**A/N:** Whoops, sorry to keep you waiting.

* * *

**11. Rescue**

**

* * *

  
**

"This is as far as I go, Nova."

"Don't call me that," I growled, flinching, glaring at my partner. He grinned.

"Right, sorry, couldn't resist. Void it is."

"You can't get any closer?"

"Hey, I trust my cloaking device, but I'm not landing in the middle of Megatron's base, and I'm not going in there with you. All I can do is give you this." He databurst a file to me. "That goes against my code of ethics, you know, giving out info about my favorite client."

I downloaded the file to find a detailed map of Megatron's underground base, detailing passages, chambers, even defenses. Lockdown shuffled sheepishly. "As long as it'll help you get back to work in one piece."

"I… thanks." I shook myself – thanking Lockdown?! What had gotten into me lately?! – and tried again. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll erase it from my processor later." It was a lie, of course, and Lockdown probably knew it. I was a Decepticon at Spark, even if Megatron had blotted out my insignias, and I would never give up this kind of advantage over my old nemesis.

"No funny business," Lockdown warned me. "You get in, grab your big shuttle boyfriend, and get out. Megatron's credits keep the energon in your fuel tank, got that? You're only valuable as long as I can afford to keep you, and if you terminate the mech with the money, well…"

"Fine. I won't kill him." Though if I ran into him I would have no qualms about seriously injuring and/or humiliating him.

Lockdown landed the ship at the mouth of a canyon and activated the cloaking device. "Megatron's back door is down this sucker," he said. "I don't think he even knows about it. But old Lockdown knows the ins and outs. Old human mine, this is, so it can get confusing. Use that map I gave you. Don't get lost."

I nodded and activated the airlock.

"One more thing. If you get caught, you're working alone, understand?"

"Perfectly."

I landed outside the ship, looking around in disgust. I truly hated this planet – all the rocks, all the trees, all the mud.

"Hey, partner, good luck," Lockdown said, appearing to float in midair as he looked out of the airlock. "I'll give you one megacycle. After that… you're on your own."

The airlock hissed shut, leaving Lockdown safely hidden. I moved with short bursts of my thrusters, trying to avoid walking on the dirt and gravel as much as possible, since they were murder on my thrusters. My sensors detected no sentries, but I went carefully even so. Although Lockdown and I had cobbled together a new scanner to detect even the dampened energy signatures the Decepticons here had, it was possible that they'd upgraded since then. When a quick visual scan failed to spot any defenses, I accepted that Lockdown had been right: Megatron didn't know about his "back door." _I_ would have known every entrance to my base if I were… no. No, I couldn't think about that any more. Those ambitions were dead. Now all I wanted was to free Skyfire and… and get back to work with Lockdown, anonymous and stable. There would be no "happily ever after" for Skyfire and me, no flying off into the sunset.

The abandoned mine was dark and labyrinthine. The forgotten carts were emblazoned with the symbol of Sumdac Systems; they were robots, then, deactivated and left to rust. I sneered and left the drones behind, using the map Lockdown had given me to find my way through the endless passages.

I kept my audios and optics tuned for Decepticons, but encountered none. Perhaps they had gone in pursuit of an Allspark shard or the like, but I took no chances. Rather than relax, I only became more cautious. Many long stellar cycles had taught me to treat everything with suspicion; even the clearest area could be a trap, was even _more_ likely to be a trap.

Lights ahead made me duck into a side corridor. I had my own signal blocker, but I was still visible to the optics. I didn't hear footsteps, just a hum and whirr. A drone passed by in the tunnel I'd just been using, floating along with headlights ablaze. Its camera-style optic revealed it to be a security droid and little threat. As soon as it had turned the next corner, I carried on, now aware of the potential danger of discovery.

This security was laughable. Was Megatron so arrogant, so sure of himself that he'd left his stronghold open? No. He may have been arrogant, but Megatron was no fool, I could give him that. It was luck that had kept me from running into higher security… luck, or design?

What passed as a "brig" seemed to be a series of storage rooms that had been refitted with locks. It was here that things got mildly tricky – there were blinking red lights in the shadows around the ceiling: cameras.

Well, I was not Lockdown's partner for nothing. I pulled a scrambler from my subspace – it was a device of my own design, releasing a concentrated EMP that would short out the cameras and the locks on the doors. I pressed the button and set it rolling into the room, retreating to a safe distance so my own systems would escape the pulse. There was a bright flash and the red lights vanished. I had to hurry now; if anyone had actually been watching the cameras, they would now know that something was amiss and send reinforcements. Quick steps took me back into the brig. The locks had been deadened as I'd planned, making it a matter of simply pushing the doors open.

Skyfire was behind the third door, crouched in a room far too small for him. Our optics had barely met when an alarm sounded loudly over whatever communication system had been set up here.

"Intruder detected," it said again and again. I ignored it and entered the cell.

"Void? What are you doing?" Skyfire asked. I rendered the stasis cuffs useless with a shot from a null-ray and Skyfire easily freed himself.

"It's called a rescue. No time to thank me now, let's get moving."

There were lights down the tunnel I had taken to get here. Skyfire and I took another way as I checked the map Lockdown had given me. It was a long, circuitous route to my "back door," but the front entrance would be heavily guarded, as would the sky entrance.

The base was built in a once-volcanic mountain… Megatron's command center was just below the shaft, where the ceiling would be made of solidified magma. In other words, the weakest part, easy to destroy. I altered our course; evidently Skyfire recognized it.

"Why are we going toward Megatron?"

"Because I can blast through the roof and escape. You can come too if you keep up."

"Why are you doing this? Why should I even trust you?"

No so naïve after my betrayal. He'd finally learned something. "Because. Stop talking and keep moving!"

I shot down a few security drones in our path. More were on our trail and gaining, but we were nearly to the command center. Intensely grateful that I'd thought to bring one, I unsubspaced a blaster and handed it to Skyfire.

"I don't…"

"You don't have to kill anything. When we get to the command center, just aim at the ceiling and shoot."

We skidded into a large, open area. Computer banks, throne, huge Decepticon insignia – this was the place. "Shoot at the roof!" I ordered, then turned just in time to take on the drones who had followed us. There were dozens of them, but I hadn't been promoted to second-in-command of all Decepticons for my pretty face. These third-rate drones and their pathetic armaments were nothing.

I'd just finished the last of them when I heard the sound I least wanted to hear right now: the _very_ familiar sound of the unique-in-all-the-galaxy fusion cannon readying to fire.

I turned. My processor registered several things at once: first, that Megatron stood across the room, cannon aimed straight at Skyfire's back and in the final stage of the firing sequence; second, that Skyfire was looking at me and didn't see him; third, that there was no way for Megatron to miss a target that big.

Megatron fired and I moved in the same moment. I thought I must have broken the sound barrier from a standing stop… any slower and I wouldn't have made it.

I didn't even feel it for half a nano-klik; then my damage sensors went crazy, alarms shrieking in my audios and flashing in my optics. The force flung me back into Skyfire, who'd finally turned. With speed and instinct born from his training at the Academy, he caught me and blasted off, folding protectively around me as we burst through what remained of the ceiling.

We landed on the mountainside two nano-kliks later, Skyfire cradling me gently in his arms. I saw him as a white blur above me; his voice seemed to come from a great distance. "Void… why would you…?"

"Couldn't… leave y— behind… again," I forced out with the last of my strength. "You big… moron…"

Before I could see sudden, horrified recognition light his blue optics, I fell into darkness.


	12. In Between

_**12. In-Between**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

_Death wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. The pain disappeared the moment I was free of my body. For a moment I panicked, but then… I let go. It was easy. I had nothing to worry about, nothing to think about. Skyfire lived, and that was all that mattered._

_It was dark, but the darkness was warm and comforting. I existed, resting, free. Everything was meaningless but Skyfire. Nothing but Skyfire mattered, and Skyfire was alive. It was like a wonderful dream: I had memories of us, of our meeting, our conversations, our bonding, all the time we'd spent together. They decorated the darkness like stars and I watched them, explored them as Skyfire and I had once done together, flying through endless night, with each other and nothing else._

_Skyfire. My Skyfire._

_

* * *

  
_

_And then I felt a tug._

_Nova?_

_Skyfire?_

_

* * *

  
_

_Nova, my Nova… come back to me._

_

* * *

  
_

_Skyfire…_

_

* * *

  
_


	13. Endings and Beginnings

* * *

**13. Endings and Beginnings**

**

* * *

  
**

I onlined my optics. To my great surprise, my lower half was not a mass of pain. Nor did it feel like I was damaged. Nor, strangely, like I was dead. Which I had been, just a moment ago. The first thing I saw was Skyfire's face as he leaned over me.

"Nova! It worked, thank the Allspark!"

"Skyfire?" I murmured groggily, disoriented. The storm… "Did I find you?"

"What?"

"There was a storm," I recalled. "We were separated… I looked for you."

He looked blank. "You… you saved me, Nova. You died. We… we used a shard of the Allspark to bring you back."

The Allspark? Here? Where… was here?

Another face appeared. This one was blue and surrounded by a red-and-white helmet. "What's the last thing you remember?" the stranger asked.

"The storm," I said, thinking…

No. There was more. I recalled it, but distantly, like a dream. Memories of a time without Skyfire. The Stockades. War. Chaos. Starscream. Void… they were there, waiting, like a file I had only to open to access fully.

But I didn't want to remember, not completely. I could… I did… but I had what I'd always wanted. I had Skyfire… why ruin it?

"Yes," I repeated, more firmly. "The storm."

Skyfire and… Ratchet, Autobot medic… exchanged glances. "This changes things," the Autobot said.

"You can't accuse him of crimes he doesn't remember," Skyfire said, appealing to another mech who stood nearby. Optimus Prime, of course, their leader here on Earth.

"You're right."

There had been something in Skyfire's tone just now; I could feel something through our bond. He… knew. He knew that I hadn't been completely honest… but he understood why.

"Great," someone growled. Lockdown. "Then I guess he won't want to come back with me, and after all I did for him. I guess there's no point in me hanging around here, even if you didn't pay me for bringing the big lug back to you. See you, Void, or whatever your designation is now."

I watched him go. _Thank you, Lockdown._ Void couldn't have said it, but Nova could, with all his Spark. _A million times thank you._

"Well, then, if we can't turn him over to the Elite Guard, what're we going to do with him?" Ratchet asked grumpily. Skyfire helped me sit up.

"I think we should ask Nova what he wants," he suggested. All optics turned to me.

It felt so good to be able to put aside the complications of two previous lives. I rested my head on Skyfire's chestplate. "I just want to be with you," I whispered, shuttering my optics. _//Please, Sky.//_

Warmth came flooding through our newly-opened bond. _//Of course, Nova.//_

"We'll work something out, Ratchet," Prime said. He gestured towards the door and they left us alone.

_//Thank you for saving me,//_ he told me.

_//You know I remember?//_

_//I know you, Nova. We have a lot of catching up to do… you don't have to tell me all of it if you don't want to. But no matter what you tell me, I'll always love you.//_

I laughed softly, basking in the affection and love filling the bond. _//I missed you, Sky.//_

He held me close enough that I felt the warmth of his Spark through his chest plating. I relaxed against him, humming in contentment. Soon I'd like to get myself repainted to resemble myself as he'd last known me, but for now, I just enjoyed Skyfire's closeness.

With Starscream I'd had a second chance at life; it wasn't every solar cycle that one got a third chance, but I'd gotten one in Void; I'd never dreamed that I could get a fourth.

* * *

**A/N: **This is the time that I look back on a story and go "What IS this crap?!"

Anyway. Yes, this is the last chapter. No, there will not be a sequel. Once upon a time this was supposed to be a oneshot. You never get that lucky twice, no matter how much you beg for more... haha.

Not really my usual story, was it? To be perfectly honest, this is possibly the most OOC Starscream I've EVER written, and I despise OOC Starscreams. I also don't usually write fluffy romantic stuff; it really doesn't suit me. But I did, and this is what came of it. Not even a sad ending to redeem itself with.

Well, now that this is over (finally. Dear Primus)... oh my Primus, it's over?! This is truly a strange thing for me. I rarely finish a story, actually. But as I was saying, now that this is over, I have some breathing room, and then I can finally get started on the new bunny (strangely enough, another TF:A fic) that's been stewing up in my brain, waiting VERY impatiently to get out.

Anyway, it's been fun, and I hope you guys enjoyed it!


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